Stock Market News for June 28, 2012 - Market News

By: Zacks.com

Posted: 6/28/2012 10:06:00 AM

Referenced Stocks: BRY;BZH;COG;XHB;XLE

Encouraging economic readings on housing and factory orders
combined to lift the markets into the green for the second
consecutive day. Investors did keep in mind lingering euro-zone
debt woes ahead of the European Summit, but domestic sentiment and
the strength in energy shares overshadowed cross-Atlantic
worries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gained 0.7% and was up to
12,627.01. The Standard & Poor 500 (S&P 500) surged 0.9%
and finished yesterday's trading session at 1,331.85. The
tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index settled 0.7% or 21.26 points
higher at 2,875.32. The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX)
moved marginally lower, by 1.4% to settle at 19.45. Total volumes
on the New York Stock Exchange were 3.29 billion shares. Advancers
outpaced the decliners on the NYSE; as for 76% stocks that gained,
21% stocks closed lower.

For the second time in a row benchmarks ended in the green,
thanks to positive domestic economic data. The National Association
of Realtors came out with data on pending home sales, which matched
the highest level recorded over the last two years. According to
the report, the Pending Home Sales Index jumped to 101.1 in May, up
5.9% from 95.5 in April. This was also 13.3% higher than the
year-ago level of 89.2 and the rate of increase far outpaced
consensus expectations of a jump of 1.8%. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief
economist, sounded positive on the housing sector saying: "The
housing market is clearly superior this year compared with the past
four years. The latest increase in home contract signings
marks 13 consecutive months of year-over-year gains." "Actual
closings for existing-home sales have been notably higher since the
beginning of the year and we're on track to see a 9 to 10 percent
improvement in total sales for 2012," he added.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Commerce also reported
positive factory order numbers. According to a report by the U.S.
Census Bureau, new orders for manufactured durable goods jumped
1.1% or $2.3 billion in May to $217.2 billion. The upside in new
orders came after two back-to-back months of declines and also
outpaced consensus estimates of an increase of just 0.3%.

Luckily, there were no major headlines from the other side of
the pond that could dent the positive sentiment. Investors did keep
in mind lingering woes in the Euro-zone ahead of the European
Summit that commences on Thursday. Meanwhile, German Chancellor was
reported to have warned that there might not be any immediate fix
for the "structural measures." She said: "I fear that at [the
summit] there will again be far too much talk about all possible
ideas for common liability and far too little about better controls
and structural measures".